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Glossary
Building performance standards and benchmarking

What is NYC Local Law 84?

Definition

NYC Local Law 84 is New York City's benchmarking law, requiring owners of large buildings to report annual energy and water use through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to the Department of Buildings.

Which New York buildings must benchmark

Covered properties are buildings over 25,000 gross square feet, two or more buildings on one tax lot that together exceed 100,000 gross square feet, and City buildings. The Department of Buildings publishes a Covered Buildings List each year, and a column on it shows whether water data must be requested from the Department of Environmental Protection.

Deadlines and violations

  • Calendar year 2025 data was due May 1, 2026. The deadline is May 1 each year for the prior year.
  • Owners must share the property with the City in Portfolio Manager at least 15 business days before May 1.
  • A missed filing can draw a $500 penalty, issued quarterly on August 1, November 1 and February 1 until the report is in, up to $2,000 a year.

Checking utility bills against sub-meters

Most LL84 submissions are assembled from utility bills. Aqueduct's bill validation compares the consumption a supplier states with the building's own meter data and flags months outside the usual range, so an estimated or misread bill is caught before it becomes the year's benchmark of record.

Questions

NYC Local Law 84: common questions

Local Law 84 is New York City's annual benchmarking requirement, enforced by the Department of Buildings. Owners of covered buildings submit a year of energy and water data, and the city publishes the results, which also set the letter grades posted under Local Law 33. See benchmarking.

Both rest on a building's annual energy use. The Local Law 84 benchmark is usually an owner's first indication of where the building stands against its Local Law 97 emissions limit, so errors in the benchmark carry into the emissions estimate.

No. Local Law 84 requires disclosure only. Performance limits for New York buildings come from Local Law 97, which uses much of the same energy data, so a clean benchmarking record serves both obligations.

By checking each monthly bill against independent meter data before submission. Aqueduct's utility bill validation flags estimated or misread bills and months outside the usual range, and sub-meters give water and energy totals where utility data is incomplete.

See Aqueduct on your own facility.

Bring a site, a utility bill or a question. We will show you where the loss is.

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